Take an Olympic-style approach to IT
There’s a Tibetan saying: it’s better to live for one day as a tiger than to live for a thousand years as a sheep. It’s a phrase that springs to my mind every time a slalom competitor zigzags their way down the slopes at the Winter Olympics. Or a snowboarder pulls the perfect backflip. That said, taking any unnecessary risk can lead to some costly mistakes. Here are a few ways you can pre-empt and prevent IT workplace disasters using Olympic-style techniques.
1/~ Be disaster-proof
No snow, no winter games. It’s obvious, really, but for Sochi, a Russian city better known for its seaside resort than its snow, it’s a real worry with temperatures last February reaching as high as 63 degrees Fahrenheit. Pre-empting a lack of snow to hold the games has led to the stockpiling (under thermal blankets) of roughly 16 million cubic feet of snow for the competition. Half of which is likely to melt before the event. While Sochi prepares for somewhat unextreme weather conditions, IT departments should prepare for the worst. A business continuity plan is crucial to helping you prepare for unexpected events such as arctic blasts or freak flooding – much of which has happened globally lately.
2/ Get powered up
As you can imagine, Olympic Games are power hungry events. With power demand of the 2014 infrastructure expected to be in the region of 340 MW, preventing possible power failures during the games is a monumental task. Sochi’s electricity distribution network includes 900 kilometers of cables, overhead transmission lines and 500 substations, including the addition of a $310 million thermal power plant to provide more than 25% of electricity to the games. While not on the same scale, the need to prepare for sudden peaks in website traffic and ensure uptime will resonate with any IT Director or CIO. Website monitoring can help you see how your website is performing so you can deliver the service your customers need.
3/ Be the master
No-one wins an Olympic medal by being a good all-rounder. They win it by demonstrating they’ve mastered one particular sport. Equally, within the workplace, don’t attempt to be a “jack of all trades”. Try and be the master of one. In a recent article we revealed that only 19% of CIOs researched in a Gartner survey said they have the right skills within their department to support innovation and agility. Having a specialism can help bridge this gap and bring you and your organization better recognition and financial rewards.
4/ Tighten your security
Sochi has launched the biggest and most costly security operation in Olympic history, with figures standing at over $50 billion. According to Forbes~this includes the deployment of more than 40,000 police, roughly 30,000 members of the armed forces and surveillance measures that include drones and high speed patrol boats. While the Sochi games may be particularly vulnerable to security attacks, protecting people and data should be at the heart of every organisation’s security planning. This has been particularly challenging for security managers as more and more employees use mobile devices such as laptops, smartphones and tablets for work. Simple actions such as keeping a log of what devices are using corporate resources, through to encryption, patching and setting up remote connections can help. Check out the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) for useful advice on how to keep your security in good shape.